From Blistered to Broken | Brand Burnout & The Blistered Acquisition | S4 E154

On this week’s episode of the podcast, we welcome a very special guest, Bailey, founder of Blistered Fingerboards, back on the show for his first appearance since Episode 12. We dive into everything that’s happened over the last few years, from building Blistered during the boom era to navigating burnout, scaling pressure, and the realities of running a successful brand.

Bailey breaks down the behind-the-scenes story of Blistered’s acquisition, shares how the legendary April 1 announcement trolled the entire scene and kept everyone in suspense, and opens up about choosing family and balance over staying at the forefront. We also talk about what’s next for Bailey and his new passion project, Broken Fingerboards.

If you enjoy the show, please like, follow, and share!

If you haven’t been keeping track, we have weekly episodes! Audio versions out on Wednesday and video version out on Thursdays!

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 Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/broken_fbco

Website ➜ https://www.brokenfbco.bigcartel.com/

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Transcript

speaker-0 (00:00)
Cause there's Black River, there's Dynamic, there was Vortex and Carmel and then I think that I was the only other like authentic trucks, everything else was like bootleg shit. And then Deli came out and then ⁓

speaker-1 (00:15)
It's getting crowded now.

I wanna build bubbles with everybody at this point. So it'd be cool to have some USAFBL bass plates and all kinds of stuff. And I'm like, I

speaker-0 (00:29)
At that point, I would just reach out to one of the brands and see if you can do a collaboration where you just have a specific base plate that says your name on it or something. funding your own whole project is expensive as hell. And then you're also competing with all these other guys.

speaker-1 (00:45)
That makes sense. makes sense. Welcome to USAFBL Fingerboard Podcast, the official voice of fingerboard and culture from league news to community stories with real insight, writer interviews and the heart of the scene. Please follow and turn on notifications for us. And now let's get into fingerboarding. I'm your host, Levine Cunningham. Today I've got Bailey, founder of blistered fingerboards. Welcome to the pod.

speaker-0 (01:06)
Thanks for having me again, bro. It's been too long.

speaker-1 (01:09)
And you say again, cause I, when you reached out, I was like, I could have sworn I've already done a pod with you. then I had to dig so far back into the archives to find your episode, episode 12, brother. You're talking like almost three years ago.

speaker-0 (01:26)
Yeah, pretty crazy. think that's like two years after I started the business, not even two years maybe. I don't remember, but that's so long ago to think about like so much shit has happened since.

speaker-1 (01:39)
Man, all right, so you're the founder of blister fingerboard company and you've been on some pods. You've actually got your story out a few different times. So you've been on our podcast originally. We went over your origin story, little baby Bailey all the way to grown man running a fricking truck company, which is wild. And I am here for it.

And then you've been on Mike Snyder's podcast where you guys talked about the merger and acquisition of the brand and whatnot. And so here we are three years later after our original pod, and we're going to fill in all of the gaps today.

speaker-0 (02:19)
Yep. Yep. We got a, we got a lot of talking to do. There's a lot of things that we got to cover.

speaker-1 (02:25)
started trucks, started boards, started wheels. And then we kind of get into Mike's pod where we're talking about the acquisition. I feel like everybody's pretty caught up to this point. Let's talk about the actual like merger. Cause Mike is, Mike's the goat. Mike Snyder craziness. He literally will swear up and down that your wheels are like the best wheels.

on the planet. Shout out to Corey. That's a showing finest. He's a local here in Indianapolis with me and swung by the house the other day yesterday, actually. He actually had a study or wheels. I have not had the opportunity to try and session wheels. These are the Mike, the Mike arrow wheels, I guess we call it, which is interesting. So I didn't get a chance to such the Bailey era wheels, but the Mike arrow wheels, smooth as butter, bro.

speaker-0 (03:23)
Yeah, honestly, he did make some improvements to which is really nice because there's there's obviously always room for improvement when it comes to making anything. And yeah, he has made them pretty buttery smooth. I can say that for sure.

speaker-1 (03:38)
They got a little weight to them. was really impressed with the fact that they got a little weight to them and like how smooth they are actually ride flat face wheels as well. I like them. They're, they're really, really good. They're like the more you use them, like the better they feel.

speaker-0 (03:55)
Fun fact, when I was figuring out how to make wheels in the beginning, flat face dual deros were the first wheels that I ever molded. so that I could practice.

speaker-1 (04:08)
You went all in. I mean, you went all in. All right. So let's talk about you starting blistered. mean, you sold, you sold your truck.

speaker-0 (04:20)
Oh no no I didn't have a truck I sold a car. Yeah yeah yeah yeah so my... 17 Toyota 86 is it's the Toyota version of the Subaru BRZ. Christian from Calier the owner of Calier he drives the same car.

speaker-1 (04:23)
soldier car ⁓

Okay, shout out to all you.

speaker-0 (04:39)
One of the major reasons why I know that is because in the beginning when like blistered started to pop off, Christian added me on Facebook. And so I did a little deep dive into his personal profile just to see who he was originally because I didn't realize that it was him. And then I found out that it was the owner of Cali. But yeah, I saw that he has the same car and was like a little jealous after I sold my car because obviously he still has it.

speaker-1 (05:05)
snaps. He's gonna be dude, this is weird.

speaker-0 (05:08)
Yep, I'm just, I'm gassing him up for no reason. Yeah you are. Car culture, bro, car culture.

speaker-1 (05:14)
Fair enough, fair enough. mean, you're tight. So you used the money from the car as seed money, started the truck company. What? mean, can you give us Deets on? I mean, I feel like the truck company space right now is getting a little saturated. I know when you started, there was like nobody really in the space.

speaker-0 (05:22)
Yup.

We were

just talking about that. So basically, when I started blistered trucks, I want to say that there was only four other competitors in the space, me being like the fifth major truck brand and everybody else was like making bootleg trucks. If that makes sense, like every other brand that wasn't these top competitors. So we had Black River, we had dynamics, we had vortex trucks, we had caramels, and then there was blistered and those were the top five.

And then after I came out with trucks, not to say that I'm the reason why this is over a saturated market or anything. I just noticed that after I came out with my own trucks, I feel like a lot of people realized that it's not as hard of a project as it seems. It's just an expensive one. Then you have a deli trucks that came out. Now you have the new Joy Colton Indy trucks. And I want to say there's another brand. have UAGs, you have.

⁓ God, why can't I think of the other one? Obsious. That's what it is. Obsious trucks.

speaker-1 (06:37)
there's

speaker-0 (06:39)
There's

so many now. It's actually nice. Like it's a good thing. It gives everybody a chance to be different and not just mainstream riding the same shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, not to say that there's any problem with like any of the leading brands, but like it's always nice to be able to try new things, you know.

speaker-1 (07:00)
No, definitely. I mean, the consumer side of finger boarding right now is like on fire. Like we are we have everything from trucks, wheels, decks, obstacles, parks, like whatever you want. Like it is out there and accessible. like, I mean, 2026, if you're starting off as a finger boarder, like it has never been a better time to do so.

speaker-0 (07:23)
Yeah, okay, it's funny that you say that. So like when I first started, the biggest thing that got me popping immediately like in the space was the Facebook groups. like Fingerboarding Unlimited or Worldwide Fingerboarding and stuff like that. So all of these pages that I used to like really enjoy and were like popping all the time are like falling off I've noticed recently. I don't know what that is to it. I've noticed like Instagram is also not as...

as poppin' as it used to be. And I don't know if people are just like finally moving on with their lives and doing other things or whatever. And finger boarding might just be starting to take a back seat or like what's going on. But I mean, it's just weird to me. Like I've noticed a lot of the original guys that were making stuff like, I'm not gonna say any names, a lot of like the bigger names for.

Fingerboard brands that were in those pages just don't really post anything in there anymore and stuff like that.

speaker-1 (08:27)
actually glad that you brought this up because I follow all of this stuff. Cause I run a lot of the Facebook groups and I'm moderator and then I'm in all that stuff as well. like, we are in a very, very weird time right now. Like the scene is evolving and I don't know what it's evolving into, but it is definitely evolving. Like if you look at...

2019, 2020 finger boarding, there wasn't really a lot of events. There wasn't really any like podcasts. There was like finger space was like the only like really active podcasts, which craft was doing a thing as well. And then like there was only a select amount of trucks, a select amount of board makers, like a select amount of like everything now, like we almost have an oversaturation of stuff. And so like from the consumer side, this is awesome.

From the business side of things, it gets messy. We have over 150 events happening in the US alone every year, which is wild. That's unheard of. And then you've got a dozen truck makers. There's like 200 deck makers in the US, which is kind of crazy. And there's just a lot of brands. Some people like to say there's more brands than actual fingerboarders. But it's interesting to say, but I feel like...

people, brands are starting to burn out, especially ones that have been doing it now since like COVID, like 2020, 2021. That's now five years, almost six years.

speaker-0 (09:56)
Yeah, it's also it's really funny that you bring up COVID too, because I feel like that was the most obviously poppin time for me. Because everybody was sitting at home and had nothing else to do. You know what I'm saying? It's like if you were a skateboarder, you could still go to a skate park. But I don't know. It's just there's more appeal to obviously because you were stuck at home being able to just do everything that you could do at a skate park at home, but with your fingers not get injured and stuff like that. Like there's an appeal that

Obviously has just ⁓ kind of taken a backseat since then. It's definitely dwindling a little bit, but not to say that the hobby is dead or anything like that. It's just like, it was its climax. Definitely its peak.

speaker-1 (10:39)
Yeah, the scene is definitely not dead by any means. I the scene is actually growing, it's evolving. We're normalizing things that weren't even like normalized before. Like finger boarding tourism is an actual thing and it is kind of crazy. Like I noticed this.

like especially like in the last two years, like just with, you know, USFPL with regionals and nationals, you've got finger boarding con, we've got fast fingers coming up this June, you know, people are going to Germany, like, you know, we've got the Black River store now index, like people are literally catching flights and going to storefronts, people are catching flights and going to regionals and nationals, people are catching flights and going to world championships. so like,

Fingerboarding tourism. Like I just saw like Vito went to Spain and hung out with Carmel last week. I saw David Jones like dropped a Hong Kong edits. And so like, you know, it's, he went to the, uh, the storefront out there. can't pronounce it, but it starts with a G. You guys know what I'm talking about, but I mean, it's just like finger boarding tourism is like a thing. And this was not a thing two or three years ago, really. Like we kind of sort of talked about it, but like it's a legitimate.

like just thing that we can actually track. can actually like put analytics and stuff behind it. And that's kind of wild. So like, don't know what direction finger boarding is going into, but it's definitely evolving. And we're definitely in a weird spot where something has to give. And it's, it's I'm here for you the way it's just good. It's gonna be exciting to see how it unfolds.

speaker-0 (12:08)
Yeah, yeah, I know it's getting pretty crazy as far as like people traveling and making vlogs and stuff like that in other countries and stuff. That's an expensive trip, first of all. And to do that for content, that's a commitment. That's a huge commitment right there.

speaker-1 (12:29)
Well, a lot of us like to travel, especially like myself. I love to travel and like, I'm looking at things like, you know, I've been dealing a lot with like the guys out there in Uganda and Zimbabwe. Like I had no reasons to travel out to Africa. And now I'm like, actually putting it on like my list of places to go. Like, you know, and like finger boarding is kind of cool. We're like, you know, I would have never even thought of taking a trip out there. And now I'm actually like considering like going out there and hanging out with them and seeing what they got going on and.

know, donating a lot of goods and stuff like that to them and just helping the community and whatnot. like finger boarding is putting me in weird places all around the, all around the world.

speaker-0 (13:06)
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty crazy. honestly have no desire to travel anywhere for finger boarding. If that's what you want to do, that's totally cool. And making video when you do it, because it'll be a banger.

speaker-1 (13:16)
Me to each their own, to each their own. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got to.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And so it's not really so much like we do it mainly for finger boarding, but we just like to travel and experience new things. And I feel like.

fingerboarding puts us in those places. And so like, you know, there's a lot of places like I would like to go see, but I have to wait for something to happen. Like I want to go visit Mount Rushmore. But I'm like, if there's a fingerboarding event out there, I'll be like, all right, cool. Like, let me go to this fingerboarding event and let me like slide out to Mount Rushmore and go check that out. And then, you know, come back home or something. But I wouldn't go like all the way out to go see Mount Rushmore by itself. Like I need like something.

speaker-0 (13:55)
Can you imagine getting permission to like get like mountain climbing ropes or whatever so that you can like do a kickflip on the nose of one of the presidents?

speaker-1 (14:08)
Just like skyping yourself down, whatever. All James Bond Mission Impossible type stuff.

speaker-0 (14:10)
Ha

Someone's gotta do that in AI, because that is not gonna ever happen,

speaker-1 (14:19)
Probably not. Probably not. Let's talk about where you guys left off after Mike's pod. So he took over the wheel side of the company.

speaker-0 (14:33)
Yep. So I flew out there and I trained Mike and a couple other employees, how to like make wheels and everything, how to package everything and stuff like that. The way that I do it so that it was exactly the same, put a lot of effort into making sure that there was no like distinguishable differences in the way that I make the wheels versus everybody else that's making them now. So when I say everybody else, it's like two.

two, three people. Yeah. So I was there for like a whole week and basically just, ⁓ slept on Mike's couch for the whole time. And I got to try some pad Thai, which I had never had before. was pretty, pretty good. Yeah. And then, ⁓ yeah, they were very, very, what's the word? ⁓ hospitable. Okay. Very, very good hospitality. So yeah.

Anyway, they took me in and I had some conversations with Ellen, some good conversations with Ellen, just talking pretty deep about my kid and how we were super excited because we had just announced that we were having a baby, which he's sitting right next to me now. So it's been that long, guys. It's been pretty long. anyway, yeah, so basically after the podcast, ⁓ I think the podcast was like

the last night that I was there. And so after that podcast, we went over to the shop and we continued to make more wheels. We were up to like two, three o'clock in the morning, just making wheels. And I was trying to hammer everything that I could to make sure that I was teaching them literally everything just so that when I left, I felt confident that Mike wasn't going to have to call me and ask me any other questions about like how something is done.

And sure enough, I get to the airport and I get a phone call. No, no, but it was funny. It was a good time. And, ⁓ I don't know a lot of people, if a lot of people know this, but I've sold the trucks portion to him as well and the merchandising portion. And so, yeah, I only own a small percentage of the business now and.

speaker-1 (16:35)
love town yet,

speaker-0 (16:58)
⁓ it was originally planned where I was, was going to fly out again to like show him everything with the trucks, but we just did it all over video and made it easier and cheaper for me to teach.

speaker-1 (17:10)
So Mike has got the truck side as well. You just gave Mike like all five infinity rings. Yeah.

speaker-0 (17:17)
Yeah,

yeah, the infinity gauntlet, the bro. ⁓

speaker-1 (17:21)
man, all the stones, he's too powerful now bro, like he just snaps his fingers and like he can create anything he wants.

speaker-0 (17:31)
funny you say that I think I saw somebody like make a comment about after he bought Ducky Decks as well like I acquired that brand as well ⁓ somebody was saying that he's acquiring all these businesses like Thanos was acquiring infinity stones just like you said so that's funny that you said ⁓

speaker-1 (17:49)
It's crazy. I mean, I respect the grind and keeping things alive for sure. mean, having your legacy stay alive and having Ducky Tape and Duck Decks and all that stuff also stay alive. I mean, these are like pinnacle companies that have changed the way things were done for a while. Like they introduced them.

like the clear decks, all that stuff. I don't know if Savannah did it first or whatnot, but that's who we're known for for creating these things. so ⁓ the fact that we're able to preserve those and keep those going, I mean, that's what's up.

speaker-0 (18:20)
Yeah. Yeah. I know it's super cool. It's, ⁓ it's definitely like heartbreaking that I wasn't able to continue doing it as the forefront of everything, but also I'm like blessed in a way. Cause I don't really even want to be at the forefront of anything like that anymore. Like that, like grew exponentially more than I thought it was going to. And it was getting a little out of hand. I mean, I could still tolerate it I could still do it, but I was also working at the same time. Like.

There was a portion of time where I was only working on blistered. Like it was my full-time job and I was working at home and that was all I was doing. But when my wife and I found or were like trying to ⁓ trying to have a baby, I went and got another job so that we had extra additional guaranteed income, you know, like just, just for like insurance money kind of thing. Like just to make sure that we had extra money.

You know, and so it just became a lot juggling both and like, it's not like I couldn't do it. was just overwhelming. And then obviously with having a little, little one in the house, doing all of that with him in the house, there was like certain aspects to it that made it so that it wasn't something that I thought would be safe to do with a little one running around. So just like choking on stray wheels or whatever that are just sitting on the ground because they are

inevitably all over the house when I was doing it. ⁓

speaker-1 (19:53)
I didn't even think honestly about the fact that, you know, I mean, know that like, you know, finger boarding parts and all that stuff are small, but I never just don't put, you know, two and two and little babies like together like that. This is like, everything's a choking hazard.

speaker-0 (20:08)
Yep. Yeah, I know. So I just basically had to think more about like what I wanted to do in the future. And so now I am just enjoying the hobby again. And I went back to my roots and the first project that I actually did when it came to finger boarding was make my own decks. And so I've been making my own decks again. My wife and I have been enjoying that because we've just been doing it out of the enjoyment of it. And we've sold a few of them.

which is always nice because it's nice to feel appreciated for the work that you're making, you know? And yeah, so we started a company, it's called Broken and I did start it shortly before the acquisition. Not that I just was preparing for anything like that or I just coincidentally started this business right before I decided that I wanted to sell Blistered and then it took a backseat for like a whole year and now we're just

getting back into it.

speaker-1 (21:09)
All right, so sold off all of the blistered Fingerboard Co. Snyder's got all the stones. Yep. then you basically kind of transitioned. Basically, I feel like you kind of panicked pre-New Baby coming in and now life is more stable and I feel like you're now kind of getting your bearings back. No, unintended.

speaker-0 (21:36)
Yep, pretty much. And right now I am on leave and enjoying my time with my kiddo and being able to just enjoy, what would I say, his newborn years, I guess. Yeah. Not used, but you know what I mean.

speaker-1 (21:51)
No, just saying, yeah, this is the most adorable, man. got the fact that you had to leave and stuff, especially in America, that's crazy.

speaker-0 (21:57)
Yeah, no, it's nice. Just kicking it at home and basically being stay at home dad for the next couple of months.

speaker-1 (22:05)
yeah, that's awesome, man. All right, so tell us about Broken. What is the, what's the vision? Give me two years down the road. What is the vision for Broken?

speaker-0 (22:16)
Okay, so initially when we started Broken, which I want to say it was about a year before I sold Blistered, my wife was molding all the decks. She was making split plies and stuff like that, and then I was shaping them for her. so essentially, I don't really want to say that we're not taking it serious by any means, because we're definitely like...

trying to make this work and see if we can actually like from the ground up make another company that was as successful as blistered. But it's not like a, it's not like a, it's a project that I'm forcing myself to do. It's a passion project. So it's, it's like, it's nice. Cause like with blistered, I started to get burnout from having to do 30 sets of wheels plus in a day for keeping up on orders. Cause not a lot of people knew this, but majority of

the drops and stuff I did for blistered were made to order. They were not. So I would take a photo of a set of wheels or whatever, and then I would put it on the website and I would only have like one or two in stock actually made, you know, and then I would put like 10 in stock and then I would make them as they would be placed as an order. And so I was consistently busy because I always had something to do because one day I would finish all the orders for that day and then it would be overnight and then I would wake up and there was

more orders to take care of. And it was a blessing. Don't get me wrong. It was absolutely a blessing. It was just so time consuming and pulling me away from my wife and like I wanted to be there for her and her pregnancy and stuff like that. So.

speaker-1 (23:56)
It is tough running a successful brand is very, very tough. And most of the brands in our industry and our scene, whatever you want to call it. mean, like we're all product makers for the most part. I'm kind of in a weird spot where like we make a little bit of products, but we don't, it's not like our focus, you know, we're events and media and stuff like that. So I'm like one of the few exceptions to the, to that rule, but 99 % of everybody else, like they're all like,

product makers, like that's what we do 24 seven. That's either you get up and you make product, fulfill orders and ship it out and then rinse, wash, repeat. And it's like, you got to really love what you're doing to be able to do that on a literal daily basis to keep up with everything and all your wholesale orders and scaling and marketing. It's just a lot.

speaker-0 (24:44)
Yep. And the craziest thing is I didn't have any employees. I was doing everything. Printing my own packaging. You know, like I would design my own packaging, print my own packaging, cut it out. And then I would obviously make the wheels, make the trucks. I would package those and everything. Like I did everything. I had to print labels, put it on the bubble mailer. It seems like it's like really easy because I'm just like

listen it all off, but God damn, bro. It is like so taxing. It's just like, imagine working for an Amazon facility and all you're doing all day is just throwing people's packages and stuff like that. Like I'm obviously blessed, right? Like to be able to have a successful business like that, but it was just so damn tiring.

Burnout hit me fat, bro.

speaker-1 (25:45)
It's tough. see. And that's where you're seeing like, you know, what you call like a decline really kind of like in the, in the scene or whatnot, but it's, it's happening to like everybody. Cause everybody that came in during COVID, like there are four or five, six years in now. so,

They are, you can definitely start to see and feel that burnout, especially from a lot of these brands. Like I'm seeing a lot of people like in the groups and stuff, especially like, yeah, their quality isn't as good or they don't really reply back to messages anymore or that they didn't use to do this anymore or like whatever it is. Like you can kind of see like the decline. And I'm like, that's when I started really kind of noticing, like, I think a lot of the brands right now are really getting burnt out. And it's like, just trying to keep up with the status quo. And then we've got,

this attention markets where like you got to constantly keep posting to stay relevant. got to constantly like it's just it's a lot and I'm really starting to see a lot of people like struggle with that burnout right now.

speaker-0 (26:45)
Yeah, it's hard. Like if you're the only person running like an account for social media, as well as you're running the business and everything like that, it just comes really taxing. And over time you just start to like not want to do it anymore. But to say that I didn't want to do it anymore would be a lie because I, still make wheels from time to time for Mike. ⁓ I mean, like he just sent me bearings.

so that I could make more wheels, because we're doing a do it Bailey drop here soon. So yeah, but.

speaker-1 (27:17)
Okay, okay.

Anything you gonna leak on the pod could be safe. All right, fair enough.

speaker-0 (27:21)
No, we'll just keep it at that. I

I'm gonna be doing my own wheels for him every once in a while We haven't actually done like a drop or anything and I have actually I haven't really made anything since since I was in Was it and over? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah since I was there I haven't made any wheels Which is crazy to say cuz that was in April of last year actually, hold on

Let's talk about that. That was the most legendary ⁓ way to announce a company acquisition, bro. I trolled the shit out of the entire finger boarding space. I don't know if you remember, but we did this on April 1st. was. And so. Bro, everyone thought it was a joke and that was the entire point of it, because the amount of what?

speaker-1 (28:08)
Yeah, believe it

speaker-0 (28:19)
impressions that that post got specifically because people would comment and be like this is an april fools joke blah blah blah I knew that was gonna happen so I knew it was gonna be spread to the masses I knew people were gonna share the shit out of it because they didn't know whether or not it was going to be real I knew that that post was gonna pop off and it did so good and then to go the next day I was actually in Fandover and I took a picture with Mike and we like actually are shaking hands

It was hilarious. Like, if you can pop up the original...

speaker-1 (28:50)
I'm gonna try to find all that stuff because I didn't remember that because I thought it was a joke too until I saw that and I'm like, well

speaker-0 (28:55)
So the original photo was blatantly obvious Photoshop and that was the point. Me and Andrew, at the last event that we had went to, I took a photo with him and we were like shaking hands or whatever. I don't remember the exact pose, but basically we were, I was sitting next to him like this, think, just holding him or whatever. And so I sent that photo to Mike and was like, bro, Photoshop your face over this. This is going to be the most legendary announcement.

ever and then I ask Andrew I'm like, this okay? I know this is your body. I want to make sure that you're okay. Cause obviously, ⁓ it was Andrew in the photo, but it was Mike's face over Andrew's body. So it was just ironically funny that way. But, yeah, anyway, so I fly out and we did the announcement and I just knew that it was going to be huge. So

speaker-1 (29:43)
It's crazy how quickly we forget about that's literally one of the craziest troll moments in your history. Cause even some people were messaging me and stuff and he's like, you seen this? And I'm like, yeah, I I don't know, man. And like all the comments, dude, were just, some of them were like just completely out of pocket. It's just like, just wild, man.

speaker-0 (29:49)
Yeah, bro!

I have not had that much support from the whole community in a long time. It was pretty cool.

speaker-1 (30:14)
All right, so I've got to get something off my chest and it's kind of been bothering me for a little bit. Then I saw that Mike bought this, but you originally reached out to me, probably reached out to a few other people as far as like trying to find a buyer for the company.

speaker-0 (30:32)
Yeah, not a lot of people know this. I'm going to interrupt you just so that I can be the one to say it. So Levine was one of the initial people that I reached out to about possibly buying blistered. And it was really funny the way that ⁓ Levine came back at me with the rep...

speaker-1 (30:39)
Okay, alright.

You're gonna put the whole laundry list out. Alright, let's do this. Let's do this. I ain't scared. do it.

speaker-0 (31:01)
No, no, go ahead. You can tell it from there. That shit was hilarious, so I had to-

speaker-1 (31:05)
Alright,

yeah, so you reached out and you're like, you're like, Hey, dude, I'm trying to sell blistered. Yeah, no, but you like, he's like, I want to sell blistered. And I'm like, you know, I put on like, you know, my Thanos glove, and I'm like, okay, like, I don't have a wheel company or a truck company or anything like that. And so I'm like, I'm intrigued. You got you have my, ⁓ you got my full attention.

And stuff and so like, you know, you're going over all the details and stuff. And then like the way you're pitching it was like. It was like a job and like, thought that you had like, cause you're thinking like trucks and wheels and like, and I'm like, you must have like a little warehouse and like, you got like employees and I'm like, know.

speaker-0 (31:52)
in a spare bedroom.

speaker-1 (31:53)
Yeah, and so like you literally like nah, bro don't have none of that and I'm like it's just me and like my molds and I got this like I show you how to do it and I'm like fuck dude like I already have a full-time job plus USFPL and all this other stuff like there's no way like I can just be like Let's do that and then like you had a really kind of a crazy evaluation for it I'm like I respect it I get it and so I'm just like coming off the tour and I'm like, you know, the tour is like a net loss leader like I lose

thousands and thousands of dollars on tour. And so like I came off of tour and like, or we're getting ready to go on tour, one of the two, either getting ready to go on tour or getting ready to come off tour. Either way, like all my resources, like every dollar I have is pretty much locked into this tour. And I'm like, dude, I can't. And it's like a job job. And I'm like, I definitely can't. I, I want to apologize. Cause like, I was kind of a dig about it. Cause I'm just like, dude, I don't know anybody one who can come up with that kind of money. The two.

I'm like, don't know anyone who could basically like plug and play themselves into that role because you I know what that job entails. And I'm like, there's like not too many people like I know that's even capable of being that person. Like being Bailey who literally does all of that stuff that you literally listed off that you do on a daily basis. And I'm like, I don't know anybody that's wanting to sign up for that. I know people that will try, but you know, the worst thing I want to see.

speaker-0 (33:17)
I don't want that fucking gray hair, bro

speaker-1 (33:20)
I'm

like, my own gray hair is like, I don't need additional gray hairs. Like, and so I'm just like, I don't know, like who could really like plug and play themselves into that system. Cause like, I don't want to see someone like, you know, be like, yeah, I'll do it. And then like, they do it for like, you know, six months and then the whole company just tanks. Like that's like worst case scenario for me. And like, I was kind of a, I was kind of addicted. I'm not even lying. I feel bad. And then when I saw that Mike,

bought it. I was like, yeah, like I was so stoked for you, bro. I was like, you found someone because I'm like, I can list them basically one hand, like people that could actually like take it over, not just maintain it, but actually like scale it. And I'm like, you know, it's Mike and a few other industry leaders. And I'm like, that's basically like it. That's like the whole pool. And so you were looking for basically like five people in a haystack.

speaker-0 (34:12)
Yeah, no, it's actually funny that you say five people. want to say it was roughly about five people that were actually interested in, like pursuing offers and stuff like that. I'm not going to name anyone because it's none of my business to say that. would, I would assume they probably don't want to be out in the light like that anyway.

speaker-1 (34:31)
everybody's gonna come up to me like buy my brand bro buy my brand

speaker-0 (34:35)
Exactly. but believe it or not, it's like, like you said, industry leaders, like obviously I got Mike to do it. So just, just think about people that are in that same tier on the, on the totem pole there, which is crazy.

speaker-1 (34:50)
Yeah, well, I'm glad that you found a home for the brand. I'm glad that, you know, you've got someone like Mike, Mike's got the infrastructure to be able to take on, you know, that kind, those projects, the manufacturing side of it and all that stuff. Like it's, you got lucky, you lucked out. Like, I don't think, if it wasn't Mike, I mean, what's the worst case scenario? Like what's the, I mean, what would have happened if Mike was like, nah, bro, I don't want this.

speaker-0 (35:14)
If Mike would have said no, I had another person lined up. Like just to be a hundred percent honest, I don't want to say who it was because...

speaker-1 (35:24)
Fair enough, enough, well at least we had options, cause...

speaker-0 (35:27)
I had I had options for sure

speaker-1 (35:28)
I

left the conversation with you, I felt bad, I was like, dude, I honestly don't know. I'm like, I don't know.

speaker-0 (35:35)
Yeah, no, that dude, okay. Honestly, if I'm being transparent here, our conversation ended with me a little bit salty.

speaker-1 (35:44)
I told you I felt bad. was like, dude, I was like, dude, I don't, I don't...

speaker-0 (35:48)
No, but looking back, dude, I was actually like underprepared when I pitched it to you.

speaker-1 (35:54)
very

under prepared. Yeah, I will admit to that. That's where I felt bad because I was like trying to prepare you with my also like, yeah, it was it was a tough it was a tough pitch, bro. It was it was a tough pitch.

speaker-0 (36:04)
Yeah, but anyway, so Mike bought the business.

speaker-1 (36:08)
I know and everything's well, but yeah, I definitely was like, man, I gotta come clean on that. I felt bad. was like, damn, Mike bought it so it ended up being all right and I up, you know, insert foot in mouth and so here we are.

speaker-0 (36:20)
Yeah,

I know it's just it's crazy. Can I want people to imagine? What blizzard would have been like if you were the owner?

speaker-1 (36:29)
If USFBL took over blistered with decks and trucks, be nasty.

speaker-0 (36:35)
It would be crazy. We were talking about this before the podcast started. Levine is interested in potentially collaborating with one of the truck businesses out there. So if you are wanting to collaborate with USAFPL, hit up Levine. There you go. I just plugged it for you.

speaker-1 (36:52)
Appreciate

that. that. Man. Okay. So new babies here. You're feeling your stride. We got broken, broken finger boards.

speaker-0 (37:02)
It's broken underscore FBCO.

speaker-1 (37:05)
You love the co, I like that.

speaker-0 (37:08)
Yeah. It's funny too. Have you ever heard of whatnot? Yeah. So I have a whatnot account that ⁓ initially it was called blisteredrips, but after I sold the business to Mike and everything, I changed my username just so that there was no affiliation of blistered anymore. And so now it's PacificPoleCo, which is funny because you just said that I like the co at the end of, which is, yeah, I don't know what it is about it. I just think it looks professional.

speaker-1 (37:35)
You put some stank on it. You gotta put some stank on it. You are casually building a new brand, still finger boarding, still doing events, still doing the whole things.

speaker-0 (37:46)
So I haven't been to an event since last year. The last one I went to was at a shop, like a skate shop. can't remember the name of the damn skate shop. I want to say it's like Stoked to Skate. think that's what it is. It might be his account name. But anyway, yeah. So he had a pretty cool event and my, one of my ⁓ teammates, Spencer was like a cohost of the event. So that's part of the reason why we went there. Cause it's like only a couple hour drive from where I live.

speaker-1 (37:59)
Yeah

speaker-0 (38:15)
Yeah. So that was the last one that I went to. drove up with shout out to Ryan. Ryan, I will say your last name. I hope that you don't get upset with me. Ryan Brock Miller. Thank you, brother. He's a good guy. He's a really good guy. It's funny. He's the only person where I hand delivered products to him because he lived so close to me. And we didn't even like.

know each other before this hobby or anything. He just joined the Facebook group and we mutually found out that we lived in the same area, like within 10 minutes of each other. So I saved a shitload of money on shipping every time he placed an order because I would just drive it to him. yeah.

speaker-1 (38:53)
awesome.

That's awesome. Yeah, we're looking at, I do some kind of the same thing and stuff. Like some people would be like, yeah, don't swing by and grab a new issue, the magazine and whatnot and stuff. I'm like, all right, yeah, come on. Come on. That's how I got to feel out the new mic era, Blizzard Wheels. I was like, all right, all right.

speaker-0 (39:16)
I'm glad that you've gotten to try those and that you said that you actually enjoyed them.

speaker-1 (39:20)
No, they're yeah, they're really good. I still have a old set of the original blister trucks

speaker-0 (39:26)
yeah? Yeah. So I got a question. What color was the kingpin?

speaker-1 (39:30)
I have to go downstairs and go find that. ⁓

speaker-0 (39:33)
If it was silver then it was the original like OG

speaker-1 (39:38)
G-Era? Okay, so for silver...

speaker-0 (39:41)
They had

major issues. I'm not going to lie. Because so what happened was the when I was doing the like manufacturing for these trucks, obviously had to reach out to parts manufacturers for like screws and stuff like that. And so I had been waiting months and months and months and they finally sent me these screws. And so I bought these screws, right. And they show up and basically I go to put them in the kingpin and everything was or kingpin hole and everything was fine.

to my knowledge, I was sessioning them and they were fine and whatever. then, so I start sending out pre-orders with these kingpins.

speaker-1 (40:16)
I remember you flooded the whole groups with like all these defaults and stuff. But you made it right.

speaker-0 (40:22)
Yeah,

no, I definitely made it right. Yeah. So it sucks because I didn't realize that they were literally like 0.1 millimeter just too narrow. And so like they were just easily stripping. And so I had to make it right. Basically, what I had to do is reach out to that same manufacturer. I told them that essentially they sent me the wrong part. And so I got those replaced by the actual real part. And then I also did the... ⁓

I had the standard conversion as well as the inverted version, so I had to get other screws as well. So there's two kingpins and they're both black now and the silver ones. If you have a set of blister trucks that have silver kingpins, please do yourself a favor and reach out to Mike because if you want the actual good experience, ⁓ we do have the kingpins by themselves on the website, as well as you can reach out to him for like base plates so that you can get them properly threaded to the new kingpins and everything like that.

I went out of my way to make sure that basically everyone was made whole, but there are still like a select few of people that just didn't reach out to me. So yeah.

speaker-1 (41:26)
That's

crazy. All right. Let's talk truck one ⁓ five. Like we're in college. Like one on one is like pre freshman year kind of let's get further into the whole kingpin like situation. Like I see standard kingpins where, you know, the, nut sits on top and then you've got like dynamics where like, you know, they're inverted and upside down and to there, like, is there one that's more

consistent than the other as far as the threading and all that stuff goes or is, mean, like, is there one that's really preferred over the other? what is more? mean, just walk me through the science of it. I'm trying to figure out.

speaker-0 (42:04)
Like

basically like what people prefer more is that what you're

speaker-1 (42:08)
No,

like the mechanical side of it because like, yeah, mean, easily standard. Cause I mean, there's obviously way more standard trucks than there are inverted trucks. And I feel like inverted kingpins and stuff have, they're just known for having issues. So you don't see a lot of them, but I don't know the science behind it. Like, do you have any like analytics or science or anything that you can kind of shed on that?

speaker-0 (42:11)
Or like my opinion of what's Standard, easily.

So with my trucks, specifically with standard, I will say a lot of people had a gripe about the having to screw them in with two different tools. You had to hold the kingpin from the bottom because you had to insert the kingpin through the bottom hole. And then you would have to get a Phillips to hold your kingpin in place while then you are tightening with the nut on the top, if that makes sense. Yeah. With another tool. So as far as like the convenience factor goes, I would say that

The standard version on my trucks was a little bit ⁓ inconvenient, but they performed so well in standard versus in inverted. just, feel like I didn't even ever have to take them off of my setup. was like completely content with the way that they were in standard. So, but with inverted though, I, I'm just not a fan, just not a fan.

speaker-1 (43:29)
And it's weird. I like the way they look and they perform, but you know, if nine out of 10 trucks are standard and you know, the only small handful of trucks are inverted, it's like, you know, there's gotta be a reason for it and stuff. Why that really hasn't like caught on. I'm like, there's gotta be like, you know, a mechanical side of it to why like people aren't really messing with the inverted side of things and stuff like that. So it was just interesting to kind of pick your brain on that.

speaker-0 (43:54)
Well, I do think it was cool when Deli came out with their version of inverted trucks and they have like the hex kingpins. So the reason I think the hex kingpins are cool and maybe I can get in trouble for even saying this because I haven't even pitched it to Mike yet. But ⁓ if like we were to say, remodel anything as far as like base plates or whatever goes for that convenience factor that I was just talking about where you would have to use two tools.

You wouldn't have to use two tools if we used hex pins because I could basically make a cutout that's a hexagon on the bottom that would hold it as like, so it locks in place. Yeah. I mean, that's solid way to fix that. That's a lot of money to fix a small issue to me.

speaker-1 (44:35)
also lock some plays.

Well, luckily for you, that's a mic problem. Yeah.

speaker-0 (44:49)
⁓ No, but ⁓ Yeah, so as far as like inverted or standard goes though, I would definitely choose standard. I think that invert people like inverted specifically because You don't get hung up on like crooks and stuff like that. Like you're not getting locked on king or a

speaker-1 (45:11)
Catching

on all that stuff. Yeah. I mean, that's my appeal on them. I like the inverted, but I mean, like I said, I was really just kind of curious as to like the mechanics behind all that and stuff. Like, why is it that I like this? Why is it that this is like the standard? You had a team when you were doing the blistered fingerboard Co. Do you got a team that you're going to be putting together or do you already have a team for broken?

speaker-0 (45:35)
Yeah. So we have, ⁓ we've had a team actually since before the acquisition. So we had everything like lined up and ready to go. And I feel honestly like very grateful for these guys that are on the broken team. Cause there was a point of inactivity for, like I said, it was almost a year, like eight months, nine months of just like nothing. was like so inactive in the space. So for them to like stick around and be loyal and

not have just forgotten about the fact that they were on the team is awesome. But yeah, so let me do a quick shout out. We got two guys and it's Seth.fb on Instagram and then there's Christo. Christo, the at is a little strange, so I'm going to spell it out for you guys. It's C H H H H R I S T O. Yep, and.

speaker-1 (46:29)
Crystal, okay.

speaker-0 (46:32)
These two guys are legends, absolute legends. So make sure you guys give them a follow. If you are into the whole broken thing, that'd be very, very cool of you guys to do that.

speaker-1 (46:45)
Well the fact that they stuck around even when there wasn't anything going on, transitions, stuff like that, that's when you know you got some real ones.

speaker-0 (46:52)
Yeah, Seth is an amazing dude, let me tell you that. And then Christo, obviously another amazing guy. just, just for them to like, like I said, to stick around through the basically absence. Like I was literally inactive for so long. Cause I was so focused on my little one and my wife. It was just a really, really cool for them to still be there.

Can you talk about it? Yeah, yeah. So the blister team, ⁓ initially when it was just the wheels acquisition, I technically still owned 50 % of the brand. So I was majority owner and I still had decisions that I could make that were reflecting how the company was ran and stuff like that. And I was basically still in charge of the team. And I mean, I still am part of the team, but I'm not top dog anymore. I'm not.

really run in any part of the team anymore. But all of the initial guys that were on the blister team, like right before the acquisition are still on the team. So that makes me really happy because those were all really close knit, like literally brothers to me. And it's just nice for Mike to take them in as like his own as well.

speaker-1 (48:08)
That's awesome. I was kind of afraid that maybe the band would have gotten broken up, but I'm glad everybody stayed together.

speaker-0 (48:13)
No, that's one thing that when we like drafting up contracts and everything, I made it very evident to him that I was not going to let him just drop my guys because they basically like contributed to the growth of the brand. So.

speaker-1 (48:28)
No, that's a real one right there. Like that's love, dude. Like that's, I love to hear that. The fact that no matter what you look after your people.

speaker-0 (48:36)
Yeah, I know and even though these guys obviously get on my nerves sometimes like they're annoying is that no No, I'm not they're funny as hell and They deserve the the flowers they've been given recently. So yeah, I feel like I feel like with Mike leading them They're definitely getting spoiled a lot more than when I was leading them. So that part makes me happy because I was lacking

But really lacking on like sending them sponsor packs and stuff like that

speaker-1 (49:08)
I mean, got Thanos now as like, you know, the blister daddy. mean, that's crazy. that's, I mean, I don't want to say like, that's a step up. I mean, like, dang, dude, like that's, they locked up.

speaker-0 (49:20)
Yeah, no, they're definitely blessed too. I'll just put it at that. But it's also cool as hell to me because there's guys that I wanted on the blister team that didn't even bat an eye at me, like didn't give me the time of day. And then ⁓ Mike acquired the brand and now they're on the team. That's cool as hell to me. I'm not like saying that in a bad thing by any means. I was not nearly as popular in the

in the space, like people, people weren't like trying my products as much as they are now, obviously, because there's a guy that has like hundreds of thousands of followers or whatever promoting the brand. So it's, it's different and people see it differently. Like, I mean, I had, I had wanted to get, for example, like Chris Daniels, if you know who that is, Daniels. I wanted him on the team so goddamn bad. Cause he's like West coast guy. He's been to like,

speaker-1 (50:12)
Sir, national.

speaker-0 (50:19)
Yeah, he's been to like almost all of the events that I've been to over here and he's just a really chill dude. And every time that we go to an event at like the Bad Space, for example, one of the events hosted by Andrew, it's a brewery. So I'd buy him beers and he'd buy me beers and we chatted up and he just had a good time. And I just really vibed with the guy. So I really wanted him on blistered. But every time I would ask him, he'd just ghost me on it.

I'd give him products, I'd be like, bro, try this. I just never heard about it. And then not to like put him on blast or anything by any means, like the dude has his own YouTube channel and like busy guy, busy guy. So I can't like discredit him for being behind on certain things or whatever. And he basically told me that he just hadn't gone around to trying the products or whatever, but as soon as he did, he fell in love.

speaker-1 (51:09)
right on. I know he's very particular with the brands and things that he does. He also knows what it means to be spied, like to be sponsored and what that entails and stuff like that. And so being sponsored and honestly isn't for everyone, especially, you know, you got a cat that's been around since like 2009 or something like that. So I mean, he's a, he's a tough catch. Sure. he can wheel in the Chris Daniels, you can wheel in anybody.

speaker-0 (51:31)
Yes, for sure.

Yeah,

I mean, honestly, not not to be that guy, but like when we finally got Chris to agree to be on blister, like that solidified everything for me. And I was like, yeah, I could basically get anybody on this team that I want to at this point.

speaker-1 (51:47)
He is on the team. Okay. So you're in real demand. So all right. Yeah.

speaker-0 (51:51)
Yeah, so he's a homie, I fucking love that guy.

speaker-1 (51:54)
⁓

I thought he

speaker-0 (51:57)
No, ⁓

speaker-1 (52:06)
No Chris is a good dude. He's a national champ, came out to regionals, placed first, came out to nationals, won first as well. He's headed to Germany with us for FastFingers 22 this June. He's gonna put out, hopefully, I mean I'm gonna put lot of pressure on him, but like he's gotta win bro. Like he's gotta win to put USA on the map. Like I'm excited to have Tanner Hens. He's blister on the map. He's gonna put Thanos on the map. He's got blister daddy over there. Like so I mean like.

speaker-0 (52:26)
Listen on the map, bro.

speaker-1 (52:35)
I mean, like we, got three guys that we got. got Tanner Hinch, Mitch Rush. got Chris Daniels. We're taking them out to the fast fingers 22, a winner of best run, best trick and game of skate. So I'm excited. We're going to have like a whole, a whole thing, man. It's going to be all travel trotting all over the country and Berlin and swash and Bach and all that good stuff. And H like, you know, blackberry HQ, like tours and cool stuff, man. Like we're going to do all the stuff and

I know that you don't do the whole travel thing, I'm bringing the possibility with us, man. Like we're bringing the whole crew.

speaker-0 (53:07)
That's awesome. No, I like traveling. Don't get me wrong. just, I don't have the money for that. You know, like I'm a, I'm a penny pincher, bro. I don't like, I don't like spending money on, a extravagant things like that.

speaker-1 (53:20)
I ya. I am lucky. I work in corporate and I also do dabble in crypto and stuff like that. it's, I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I got a wife and stuff as well. We're doing well. And so we just travel and do stuff and we don't really buy materialistic stuff. really just kind of travel and do stuff. I say like we don't buy materialistic stuff. Like I don't have like a full trailer full of like Black River parks and stuff. we don't really like buy stuff, buy stuff.

speaker-0 (53:49)
Those

are all write-offs, bro.

speaker-1 (53:51)
Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's a whole, it's a whole other thing. But yeah, we don't, you we don't drive fancy cars, things like that. Like we not like frugal frugal, but we, we know how to spend our money, I guess. We squeeze travel and we make it a priority. All right. So who, I know you got like a nice little, ⁓ call out list. We want to shout out and recognize.

speaker-0 (54:10)
⁓ Shout out my wife. Yeah, shout out the whole blistered team. Shout out broken team. I want to throw one out of like left field here It's funny. It's ironically funny because you sent the email that said have your shoutouts ready ⁓ No, hell no, I'm doing this off just top the head ⁓

speaker-1 (54:25)
You didn't make your list?

Bro, it's like being at the Grammys and like, you know, you're to give a speech. Like you got to have that list, bro. You got to have the list. Shout out to the fam. All right. So where can people find you on the internet?

speaker-0 (54:38)
you can find us now on Instagram at broken underscore FB co. And then obviously still partial owner of blistered. Everyone knows where to find blistered. that's whatever.

speaker-1 (54:54)
I'll have all of those links in the description for you guys and also the wine Cunningham ussvl on all platforms. Bailey, it's been a pleasure being back. I'm sorry it took 140 something episodes to get you back on the pod, but I'm glad you're back.

speaker-0 (55:08)
No No problem. If you ever want a guest on the show just for an extra head in here, you're welcome to reach out to me. I don't really have too much to do for the next couple of months, so...

speaker-1 (55:20)
Fair enough, fair enough. Well, I'm expecting some drops. all I'm expecting. I'm expecting some prototypes, some new deck molds. I'm expecting all kinds of stuff. You better get busy.

speaker-0 (55:29)
Alright, sounds good brother.

speaker-1 (55:32)
Until next time.

speaker-0 (55:34)
Till next time.

You flick out right my soul

in the

I'm sorry like a bird every trick a story every slot a word grinding on the edge I'm breaking the mold fingerboard and dreams worth the weight and gold

You

as they scur- in this finger-bo-ting!

speaker-1 (56:46)
you